Five Amarican in Borup

5 American Artists in Borup

Skovbo Art Association presented five prominent American artists at an exhibition at the Town Hall in Borup. Three of the artists had recently been featured in the exhibition ONE MOREat Esbjerg Art Museum.

William Anastasi

“Fold a piece of paper five times, place it in your pocket, take a small pointed pencil and start drawing on one side without thinking about whether it turns out pretty—just scratch away.” This was how William Anastasi performed his so-called Pocket Drawingsin the mid-1960s. His works on paper reflected his continuous and multifaceted exploration of drawing as both a physical presence and a transfer of real-time energy onto the paper’s surface. William Anastasi was a pioneer of Minimalist and Conceptual Art and was regarded by many as one of the most significant artists on the global art scene from the early 1960s onward.

William Anthony

Since the mid-1960s, William Anthony’s bizarre line drawings had achieved cult status among prominent figures such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. According to Warhol, Anthony’s illustration of the Bible was the only Bible he could understand. Anthony’s satirical depictions of human fragility, war, mythology from the Wild West, and humorous “copies” of modernist masterpieces employed materials drawn from the visual culture of the mainstream, often exaggerated and understated at the same time, with an unmistakable surreal charm. The iconography allowed pop references to shine through, while also functioning as a subconscious layer of pop culture—an image-making machine that distorted and displaced meaning. His icons were not spiritual guides but led instead toward existential wilderness, where laughter appeared as the only possible salvation after God had abandoned the planet.

Dove Bradshaw

Dove Bradshaw contributed a series of photogravures selected from works produced over the previous ten years, focusing on the theme Time of Change. Bradshaw, who had recently curated the memorial exhibition In Memoriam of Sol LeWitt: One Moreat Esbjerg Art Museum, had previously collaborated with William and Lawrence Anastasi, Robert Ryman, Sol LeWitt, Carl Andre, among others. The exhibition was rooted in Minimal Art and Conceptual Art, two of the most significant movements in American art.

Michael Coughlan

Michael Coughlan’s work employed the codes of modernist art, with particular emphasis on Surrealism and Conceptual Art of the 1960s. His recent works also incorporated elements from his surroundings in Los Angeles, including abandoned environments and the distinctive qualities of light and its scattering effects. Drawing on conventions from both modernist movements and pop culture, his works filtered these influences through a personal aesthetic idiom, resulting in pieces that were both humorous and melancholic. Coughlan’s works developed from simple drawings on paper into pastels and eventually into paintings.

Lawrence Anastasi

Lawrence Anastasi contributed drawings that could be summarized by the question, What is more important: Life or Art?—a fundamental inquiry that he explored in depth. Lawrence Anastasi participated in a major presentation of his works at Stalke Gallery in 2009 and took part in the exhibition ONE MOREat Thomas Rehbein’s gallery in Cologne.

The exhibition was organized in collaboration with Stalke Gallery. At the opening on Sunday, September 21, gallery owner Sam Jedig presented the artists and their works. The exhibition was on view until October 30.

Stalke Galleri exhibition archive from 1987